A farming chore to which this invention is directed is the winding up of electrical fence wire used to contain domestic animals. With tractor powered attachments the wire may be pulled in and wound effectively and efficiently. However such attachments of the prior art impose problems in mounting, safety of use about people and livestock, safety in control of the tractor during winding and the ability to wind at high speeds and uniformly distribute the wire about a windup reel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,823,873 to E. E. Peterson, Feb. 18, 1958 has a wire winding spool drive axle directly connected to a tractor drive shaft for rotation. The weight of the axle and reel extending rearwardly from the tractor are supported by braces fixed to the tractor frame. The spool is loosely fitted to the rotating drive axle without retention means, and is friction driven by a radial wire contacting the axle to impart a drive torque. The spool thus slips on the shaft under significant load. There are problems operating such an array because the very small drive torque for the spool limits the load and does not react well under full spool capacity because of the greater torque necessary for winding. Also since the spool is not secured on the shaft it can come off the back end, and tends to do so if the tractor is not parked on a level spot so that the drive axle is slanted downwardly. Furthermore the wire cannot easily be layer wound without dangerous manual intervention. Additionally, the spool weight is supported at its rear end only by the laterally extending axle-brace assembly so that there is a tendency to bend the axle and to whip the spool around during winding.
As will be set forth in more detail hereinafter, it is an object of this invention to overcome these problems of the prior art by improved wire winding attachments for tractors provided by this invention.